Distribution of Sample Mean, proportion,
and variance
Dr. A. Ramesh
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT
IIT ROORKEE
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Acceptance Intervals
Goal: determine a range within which sample means are likely to occur, given a
population mean and variance
• By the Central Limit Theorem, we know that the distribution of X is
approximately normal if n is large enough, with mean μ and standard
deviation
• Let zα/2 be the z-value that leaves area α/2 in the upper tail of the normal
distribution (i.e., the interval - zα/2 to zα/2 encloses probability 1– α)
• Then
μ z/2σ X
is the interval that includes X with probability 1 – α
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Sampling Distributions of Sample Proportions
Sampling
Distributions
Sampling Sampling Sampling
Distribution of Distribution of Distribution of
Sample Sample Sample
Mean Proportion Variance
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Sampling Distributions of Sample Proportions
P = the proportion of the population having some characteristic
• Sample proportion (p̂) provides an estimate of P:
X number of items in the sample having the characteristic of interest
pˆ
n sample size
• 0 ≤ p̂ ≤ 1
• p̂ has a binomial distribution, but can be approximated by a normal
distribution when nP(1 – P) > 5
5
^
Sampling Distribution of p
• Normal approximation:
Sampling Distribution
P(Pˆ )
.3
.2
Properties: E(pˆ ) P
.1
0
0 .2 .4 .6 8 1
(where P = population proportion)
X P(1 P)
And σ p2ˆ Var
n n
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Z-Value for Proportions
Standardize p̂ to a Z value with the formula:
pˆ P pˆ P
Z
σ pˆ P(1 P)
n
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Example
• If the true proportion of voters who support Proposition A is
P = .4, what is the probability that a sample of size 200 yields
a sample proportion between .40 and .45?
• i.e.:
if P = .4 and n = 200, what is
P(.40 ≤ p̂ ≤ .45) ?
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Example (continued)
• if P = .4 and n = 200, what is
P(.40 ≤ p̂ ≤ .45) ?
Find: σ pˆ P(1 P) .4(1 .4)
σ p̂ .03464
n 200
Convert to .40 .40 .45 .40
P(.40 pˆ .45) P Z
standard .03464 .03464
normal: P(0 Z 1.44)
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Example
(continued)
if P = .4 and n = 200, what is P(.40 ≤ p̂ ≤ .45) ?
Use standard normal table: P(0 ≤ Z ≤ 1.44) = .4251
Standardized
Sampling Distribution Normal Distribution
.4251
Standardize
.40 .45 p̂ 0 1.44
Z
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Sampling Distributions of Sample Variance
Sampling
Distributions
Sampling Sampling Sampling
Distribution of Distribution of Distribution of
Sample Sample Sample
Mean Proportion Variance
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Sample Variance
• Let x1, x2, . . . , xn be a random sample from a population. The
sample variance is
1 n
s
2
i
n 1 i1
(x x) 2
• the square root of the sample variance is called the sample
standard deviation
• the sample variance is different for different random samples from
the same population
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Sampling Distribution of Sample Variances
• The sampling distribution of s2 has mean σ2
E(s2 ) σ 2
• If the population distribution is normal then
(n - 1)s2
σ2
has a 2 distribution with n – 1 degrees of freedom
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The Chi-square Distribution
• The chi-square distribution is a family of distributions, depending on
degrees of freedom: d.f. = n – 1
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 2 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 2 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 2
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Degrees of Freedom (df)
Idea: Number of observations that are free to vary after sample
mean has been calculated
Example: Suppose the mean of 3 numbers is 8.0
If the mean of these three values is 8.0,
Let X1 = 7 then X3 must be 9
Let X2 = 8 (i.e., X3 is not free to vary)
What is X3?
Here, n = 3, so degrees of freedom = n – 1 = 3 – 1 = 2
(2 values can be any numbers, but the third is not free to vary for a
given mean)
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Chi-square Example
• A commercial freezer must hold a selected temperature with little
variation. Specifications call for a standard deviation of no more than 4
degrees (a variance of 16 degrees2).
• A sample of 14 freezers is to be tested
• What is the upper limit (K) for the sample variance such that the
probability of exceeding this limit, given that the population standard
deviation is 4, is less than 0.05?
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Finding the Chi-square Value
(n 1)s2
χ
2
Is chi-square distributed with (n – 1) = 13
σ 2
degrees of freedom
• Use the the chi-square distribution with area 0.05 in the
upper tail:
213 = 22.36 (α = .05 and 14 – 1 = 13 d.f.)
probability
α = .05
2
213 = 22.36
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Chi-square Example
(continued)
213 = 22.36 (α = .05 and 14 – 1 = 13 d.f.)
(n 1)s 2 2
P(s K) P
2
χ13 0.05
So: 16
(n 1)K
or 22.36 (where n = 14)
16
(22.36)(16)
so K 27.52
(14 1)
If s2 from the sample of size n = 14 is greater than 27.52, there is
strong evidence to suggest the population variance exceeds 16.
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Summary
• Introduced sampling distributions
• Described the sampling distribution of sample means
– For normal populations
– Using the Central Limit Theorem
• Described the sampling distribution of sample proportions
• Introduced the chi-square distribution
• Examined sampling distributions for sample variances
• Calculated probabilities using sampling distributions
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Thank You
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